Mandy Harvey: The Shoeless Golden Buzzer Winner and Much More
“Try” is an important word to Mandy Harvey.
Visit the singer-songwriter’s website, and you can order two different T-shirts emblazoned with the three-letter phrase — one in English and the other in sign language.
It’s the title of one of the first songs Harvey wrote after deciding to carry on with a career in music despite going deaf at age 18. And it’s the song she sang during her memorable 2017 audition on “America’s Got Talent,” earning praise from judge Simon Cowell and launching Harvey to fame.
“For a lot of people and for myself, ‘try’ is more of a daily choice to continue even though it seems ridiculous or it’s hard or frustrating,” explains Harvey, a 32-year-old Colorado native who’ll perform a number of shows in New Jersey this week.
“It’s not necessarily saying, ‘Oh well, now that I’m trying, everything’s gonna work out,’” she adds. “It doesn’t always work out. That’s not really the point. The point is that you’re willing to put yourself out there.”
Harvey was born with a connective tissue disorder that gradually took her hearing. She went deaf soon after she began studying vocal music education at Colorado State University in 2007. Initially, she gave up on her musical dreams.
But using music’s natural vibrations as a guide, Harvey soon began writing songs and singing at clubs. Two years ago, armed with a ukulele, she performed an arresting rendition of “Try” that inspired Cowell to press the show’s patented Golden Buzzer, sending Harvey straight to the quarterfinals. She ended up finishing fourth.
If you weren’t aware Harvey was deaf, you’d never know by hearing her sing. She has an emotive, jazzy voice that commands your attention.
These days, Harvey is touring the country and giving motivational speeches. She’ll conduct workshops with students at the School of Communication Disorders and Deafness at Kean University in Union on Thursday and perform at the school’s Enlow Recital Hall on Saturday. In between, she’ll play the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts in Toms River.
She’s also promoting her fourth album, “Nice To Meet You” — a title that has personal meaning.
“It’s saying I’m finally starting to figure out who I am,” Harvey says.
Discover Jersey Arts spoke to Harvey about why she performs without shoes, how she writes songs, and whether Simon Cowell is actually as intimidating as he seems.
Jersey Arts: What can the audiences in New Jersey expect from your shows this week?
Mandy Harvey: For the university, I’m doing some workshops, and then we’re doing a full-band concert. So for both of the two full-band concerts, it’s a mix of some of my favorite songs, but it’s a lot of original material. There’s gonna be ASL (American Sign Language) throughout the entire performance, so it’s more inclusive. And it’s a family-friendly show. It’s very high energy, but I do have some stories and things that are woven in based off of the songs and the meaning behind them. It’s a lot of fun.
JA: What will the workshops be like?
MH: There’s a few different workshops. I believe I will be meeting up with an ASL group to discuss music and ASL. It’s a very different approach. It’s not just translating English words. It’s also depicting the songwriting style and the instruments that are involved and to be able to sign so that you can depict tone. It’s a beautiful process. So I’ll be doing a workshop about that.
I’ll also be doing a workshop feeling music and the way that I go about preparing for any concert — but also just the study and the work that I’ve put in in feeling vibrations and understanding music in a different way.
JA: What do you mean by “feeling music”?
MH: Any sound is a vibration first. It hits your body and your brain kind of translate that to what you think is the sound. Everybody feels everything first. So it’s a matter of paying attention to those vibrations and understanding the movement that’s being caused by music. The different vibrations, they feel different. The drums feel different than the bass because the bass is a much lower end. So the vibrations are very thick and they kind of rattle in your bones almost. They can replace your heartbeat. So when you go to a concert, it rattles and it feels like it’s gonna shift you over in your seat.
It’s a matter of really paying much more attention. When I was first learning how to control dynamics, I would blow up a balloon and hold it on my fingertips. And then I would be able to feel my volume — not just the stress on my vocal cords but the actual volume that I was making based on how I could feel it on my fingertips and then adjust based off of singing into a balloon versus another person singing into a balloon and understanding why they felt different. There’s a lot behind that.
JA: During “America’s Got Talent,” you got attention for the fact that you performed with no shoes on so you could better feel the music. Do you still do that?
MH: Oh yeah. Absolutely.
JA: And that helps?
MH: Yeah. I mean, what it does is it allows you to feel the floor. I have a drummer who will be on my left, and he tends to be on a riser so that he doesn’t overwhelm all of the things that you can feel. And then I have a bassist directly behind me, and that one’s because you can feel it in your chest. Then I have electric guitar to my right, and on my far right is my pianist. And those two are difficult to feel, so those are a lot more eye contact.
But really, the benefit of being able to feel the floor is to make sure we’re all playing in time with each other.
JA: Do you remember the first song you ever wrote?
MH: The first song I wrote entirely by myself was a song called “Going Home.”
JA: How old were you then?
MH: I wasn’t that young. It wasn’t that long ago. It was, gosh, 2009?
JA: So it was after you lost your hearing?
MH: Oh yeah. I didn’t write any music before I lost my hearing.
JA: How difficult of a process is it to write music without hearing?
MH: I mean, I think an artist’s ability to express themselves is a natural process. I have to take a couple of extra steps. I already understand a lot of the music theory. When you’re writing a song in a certain key, there’s only so many notes that work in a certain key. And understanding how those chord changes go and what that would tonally sound like in my head, that’s something I work very hard on to keep fresh and keep on top of in my mind. But writing a song based off of how you feel, I have to record what I’m playing and what I’m singing as I’m just letting myself kind of regurgitate information, and then somebody will take the recording and will chart it out for me so I can see what I did. And from there, I can manipulate and change and modify if I decide to, or just keep it as I was.
Some songs are easy to keep and not ever touch. When I wrote “Try,” which was probably all told the fourth song I ever wrote and the first song I wrote about myself, I spent maybe 10 to 15 minutes writing that song.
JA: “Try” was the first song you performed on “America’s Got Talent.” And you sell T-shirts on your website featuring that word. How important is that message to you?
MH: The song itself was saying that I’m admitting that my world is kind of broken and I don’t know really know who I am and I don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow, but I’m sick and tired of allowing fear to dictate my life, and I’m sick and tired of letting my days just pass me by, so I’m going to make a conscious effort to get up and move forward.
For a lot of people and for myself, “try” is more of a daily choice to continue even though it seems ridiculous or it’s hard or frustrating. It’s not necessarily saying, “Oh well, now that I’m trying, everything’s gonna work out.” It doesn’t always work out. That’s not really the point. The point is that you’re willing to put yourself out there.
JA: Have you ever wondered how your life would have been different if you didn’t go back to music?
MH: I think, in some manner, I would have always returned to music. Whether or not that would have been performance, I think, is a completely different thing. I worked at a doctor’s office for a long time after I lost my hearing, and I was doing both. I was working doing medical billing and coding during the day and then in the evenings I was singing at jazz clubs. And, in a hopeful situation, I was also getting sleep, but that wasn’t always the case. You know, I really enjoyed that job, but music was just something I couldn’t let go of. And it became something else.
JA: Do you have a favorite moment from your time on “America’s Got Talent”?
MH: There was a lot that happened on that show. I do remember, though — this is an interesting thing for me, I guess — my audition was the first day of filming. We almost got sent home and told to come back a different week because Mel B’s dad died. So everything got delayed. And then they eventually said, “Oh no, we’re gonna do it today.” And mine was the first day of filming.
And when I was on for my soundcheck, they tested all of the red Xs because on the first day of filming, they had to make sure everything worked. I don’t know why they decided to do it right before my soundcheck, but I think it was because they thought it would scare me less. It was terrifying. It shakes the whole stage when that sound goes off and all the lights go red. And then right before I walked on stage for my actual audition, they tested the red Xs again. Then when they tried the Golden Buzzer, the Golden Buzzer didn’t work. It was broken.
Then Cowell screamed to the 5,000 people sitting in the audience that he didn’t care that the Golden Buzzer didn’t work because it was the first day of filming and he wasn’t gonna hit it. (laughs) Then I promptly walked right out on stage and performed right after he said it. So that was kind of the funny little thing. It was like, “Welp, no pressure.” There was like a moment where I was just like, “There’s no worry anymore. Just go out and do your best.”
JA: You got a great reaction from Simon. Is he not as scary as some people think?
MH: I still think he’s a pretty terrifying dude. Not gonna lie. He’s very opinionated. And I think if you are arrogant or if you perceive yourself to be better than others, I think that he’s quick to remind you that, you know, you’re not.
But he was very kind to me. And he made a point after every performance to come up and talk to me one-on-one after the camera stopped rolling to give me personal feedback, but also just to tell me how proud he was of me.
JA: Is there a way for you to feel new music that’s popular now?
MH: I have to learn everything. So it’s not just as easy as turning on the radio and feeling it and saying, “Oh, I know who this is and I know what this song’s about.” I have to have people send me music and I have to get the sheet music and actually learn a piece so that I can understand what it is.
I have some really lovely friends that are out there, that I’ve studied some of their music because I love them — they’re nice people. A couple of those people are X Ambassadors — such great people. And Walk The Moon — I did a gig with them in the Bahamas, and they’re lovely, so I learned “Anna Sun” and “Shut Up And Dance.” That was fun to learn those two.
I enjoy learning music as long as it has something to say. I’m not a huge fan of songs I don’t necessarily connect with. If I’m gonna spend time learning it, I don’t want it to be about something dumb. (laughs)
JA: Why was your most recent album called “Nice To Meet You”? Is there a meaning behind that?
MH: It’s the first line of the song “This Time,” which was very significant for me. But also, it’s saying that: “Up until this point of my life, I’m not really sure who I was. So there’s no way you could have possibly known me.” So it was more: “Nice to meet you.” It’s saying I’m finally starting to figure out who I am.
JA: What’s next on the horizon for you?
MH: I’m touring a lot. I’m working hard. I’m an ambassador and a board member of a non-profit called No Barriers. So there’s a lot of fun things going on with that. I think I’m hopefully going to be doing a lot more school visits around the country. But also this summer, I’m going to the Philippines. Last summer, I went to Nepal with No Barriers. And this year, I’m going to the Philippines for 10 days or so to visit a bunch of schools there, give them educational supplies. But also, we’re visiting a lot of hard-of-hearing and deaf schools. I’m not entirely sure what it’s gonna entail, but it’s gonna be a lot of hard work and it’s gonna be super worth it.
And of course, I’m always working on new music and all sorts of stuff.
